Category: aircraft

August 2017 – 70 years of the Beaver

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On August 16, 1947 the first de Havilland beaver took to the air off a paved strip in Downsview, Ontario.

Celebrating this remarkable feet of Canadian engineering is special to me. Beaver C-GZBR, which we currently operate, was a part of my life before I can remember. I recently wrote about it on our business blog. Special thanks to my niece, Rebecca of Hello Harmony Studio for her commemorative design featured in that post as well as on t-shirts available for purchase in our office.

It only seems fitting that I select one of my favourite images of this aircraft (being flown by my favourite pilot) for our calendar this month.

Waters flow

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With sorrow I share that last week we suddenly and tragically lost my husband’s nephew at the age of 26. Buddy spent time around the docks of our seaplane base off and on from the time he was a toddler. He started his flying career with us in 2004 and was back to work for us this summer. He was a gentle soul with a dimpled grin and quick wit, and he was an excellent pilot.
passing rains
My tears fall and mix with the summer rains.
Like the rain the sadness comes in varying volume, randomly; sometimes sudden, tumultuous; sometimes softly, gently.
Like the rain the sadness passes. The sun returns with warmth and light. I go on, stronger.

Up, up and away

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free desktop calendar May 2015_1440x900

As I post the calendar for the upcoming months, the ice is breaking up on our lake. Within a week we should be treated to the sights and sounds of the float planes in the air again. The Cessna 206 featured in this shot taken last year, was called on quite a bit while our Otter was off line for extended periods of time. It will be nice to have our whole fleet up and running for the 2015 fishing season.

Night lights

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Didn’t see the expected meteor shower at 1:30 this morning but was treated to the beauty of a moonless night sky!

Night Sky

 

I found this article very helpful in getting my gear set properly the evening before so I wouldn’t have to do it ‘in the field’ in the dark. I used my widest, fastest lense a Tamron 17-50mm at f/2.8, 17 mm, ISO 3200 set the mode to BULB and used my wireless timer remote shutter. It was impossible for me to see well enough to fine tune the focus so I crossed my fingers. made sure it was on manual focus and dialed to infinity.

Because of the brightness of our yard light, I took several images with different exposure times. In Lightroom, I selected the image shot at 25 seconds for the horizon and sky (on the left below) and one with a 4 second exposure for the foreground.

exposure time comparison

 

The two images were then layered in PhotoShop. I added a layer mask to the darker shot then applied the gradient tool to reveal just the bottom of image for the foreground.

layered image

All definitely worth the effort, I’d say. 🙂

 

 

June moon at dawn

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The June ‘super moon’ was setting as we rose for work this morning. It may not look like a super moon but by the time it dropped to the horizon, the sun had brightened the sky so much the moon faded completely from view. I’ll share a few shots of it rising in my next post.

passing storm

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The rumble of thunder at dusk drew me away from Game 2 of the Stanley Cup finals. I grabbed my camera and tripod and set up with a finger on the shutter button to try to catch a lightning strike before the pending rain.

summer storm rolls in

lightning brights sky

Got it!

The mosquitos were abundant and hungry in the calm air. Thankfully, I was reasonably well covered and held out for a few more shots before the wind and rain. Here are two more:

thunderstorm at sunset

aircraft silhouette with lightning strike

Oh, and the game went into overtime! Bonus.